Midwest Federation of American Syrian & Lebanese Clubs convention 2019 The conference will be held in Chicago at the Swissôtel Chicago, 323 E Upper Wacker Dr, Chicago, Illinois 60601 from July 4 through July 7, 2019....

Democracies thrive on dissent

A FREE Press safe guards democracy by publishing dissent

Meryl Streep is an American patriot who takes her broken heart and makes art

By Eileen Fleming

Meryl Streep’s Speech at Sunday nights Golden Globes was a shot in the arm for democracy and an eloquent expression of dissent.

An Excerpt follows:

Thank you, Hollywood foreign press. Just to pick up on what Hugh Laurie said. You and all of us in this room, really, belong to the most vilified segments in American society right now. Think about it. Hollywood, foreigners, and The Press…

An actor’s only job is to enter the lives of people who are different from us and let you feel what that feels like. And there were many, many, many powerful performances this year that did exactly that, breathtaking, passionate work.

There was one performance this year that stunned me. It sank its hooks in my heart. Not because it was good. There was nothing good about it. But it was effective and it did its job. It made its intended audience laugh and show their teeth. It was that moment when the person asking to sit in the most respected seat in our country imitated a disabled reporter, someone he outranked in privilege, power, and the capacity to fight back. It kind of broke my heart when I saw it. I still can’t get it out of my head because it wasn’t in a movie. It was real life.

And this instinct to humiliate, when it’s modeled by someone in the public platform, by someone powerful, it filters down into everybody’s life, because it kind of gives permission for other people to do the same thing. Disrespect invites disrespect. Violence incites violence.

When the powerful use their position to bully others, we all lose.

This brings me to the press.

We need the principled press to hold power to account, to call them on the carpet for every outrage.

That’s why our founders enshrined the press and its freedoms in our constitution…

As my friend, the dear departed Princess Leia, said to me once, take your broken heart, make it into art.

My broken heart over my first trip to both sides of Israel’s Wall in Palestine led me to become an Internet reporter because:

In 2016, my broken heart over how the democrats treated Bernie Sanders led me to cast a vote of DISSENT against the democrats, and as my conscience would not allow a vote for Trump, I voted Green last November.

In response to Meryl Streep’s speech [which did NOT mention him by name] Donald Trump TWEETED:

“Meryl Streep, one of the most over-rated actresses in Hollywood, doesn’t know me but attacked last night at the Golden Globes. She is a…..”

PATRIOT!

-Eileen Fleming, Senior Non-Arab Correspondent and Health Reporter for TADN, ran for US HOUSE in 2012 on a Platform that included ending federal regulations on cannabis, to establish every June 8 to be known as USS LIBERTY Remembrance Day, and to end USA collusion in Israel’s nuclear deceptions and military occupation of Palestine.

Senior Non-Arab Correspondent for The Arab Daily NewsProducer "30 Minutes with Vanunu" who founded WeAreWideAwake.org in response to her first of 8 trips to both sides of The Wall in Palestine Israel.In 2012, Eileen ran for US House of Representatives District 5, in Fl. Read her FREE eBooks and more at:http://www.eileenfleming.org/